It was a hard fought day for India on the field as they were made to chase 304 under the sweltering heat of Kanpur. India fell short by five runs of the target and Rohit Sharma’s magnificent 150 in the run-chase went in vain. Giving him good company at the other end and sharing a 149-run stand for the second wicket was Ajinkya Rahane. For Dhoni, the duo’s partnership was one of the biggest positives to take away from the loss.
“The way Rohit and Rahane batted, it looked as if the pitch became quite easy to bat on. But it could be because of the quality they have in their batting that it seemed it was easy to bat on,” Dhoni said. “I felt Rohit took the risks of going for the big shots very well. When you’re chasing 300, you have to keep taking risks at regular intervals, and I felt that’s what he did brilliantly.”
Elaborating further on Rohit’s century, Dhoni said, “The way Rohit carried on after getting a hundred was impressive. It was very hot and humid, but it was remarkable to see him carry on. We have a lot of positives that we can take out of this game. But, there are a few areas where we have to work, and as individuals, take responsibility of those particular occasions. Other than that, it’s quite good. I felt the first 35 overs were very good for us, when we were bowling and batting.”
Dhoni also cited R Ashwin’s absence in the middle of the innings as a crucial turning point in the game. Ashwin suffered a side strain while fielding a ball off his own bowling, and though he returned later to bowl, he couldn’t prolong and had to make his way back to the dressing room.
“I had eight overs of Ashwin, which I felt I really missed in this game. Of course, he got injured – we can’t really help. Till that point of time, the game was on and we were not giving runs to them. After that, the few overs that were shared by Raina and Binny, conceded a fair amount of runs. If we had our specialist in the side the amount of runs they scored wouldn’t have been the same. I think around 270-280 is what they would have got.”
India leaked far too many runs towards the end of their innings, in the bargain helping AB de Villiers to flourish and take on the bowlers. Death bowling was certainly something to work on in the coming ODIs reckoned Dhoni. “The death bowling was not good. It is a bit disappointing because there was reverse swing on offer for the fast bowlers, which means they should have executed the yorkers or even the back of the length, hitting the deck delivery. It could have been used more effectively, but we were not able to do that. Our bowling at the end has to improve especially in conditions where there is some help for the fast bowlers. They may be in the form of reverse swing or it may be in the form of low-bounce wicket. Whatever it may be, if there is some kind of help, we’ve to make sure we don’t give away too many runs.”
Also, on the batting front it was interesting to see Ajinkya Rahane walk out to bat at number 3. Dhoni has time and again spoken about Rahane being best suited at the top three and felt comfortable with the current batting line-up.
“If you look at our batting line-up and have Rahane bat at 3 with Virat at 4, me and Raina at 5 and 6, followed by Stuart Binny, then it looks like a very good, settled line-up, where you have the power as well as the people to chase down big totals. We have said Ajinkya Rahane should bat up the order and if he is playing, he should bat in the top three. Otherwise, Rayudu or somebody will have to bat lower than that, maybe 5, 6 or 7. The current batting line-up looks like it has got all the ingredients.”
